Student Voice

Student Voice

The Work of Past Councils

2014-15 Minister's Student Advisory Council

In August of 2014 this council shared their ideas on how Ontario can reach the goals set out in its new Achieving Excellence vision for publicly funded education. This graphic captures their ideas for implementing the 4 key goals of the vision:

2013-14 Minister's Student Advisory Council

In August of 2013 the Minister's Student Advisory Council shared their ideas on the future of Ontario's education system during the ministry's Great to Excellent consultations. This graphic captures MSAC's big ideas and was used at all of the consultation sessions.

MSAC 2013 also contributed to a new resource for student councils. In the fall of 2013, the Student Council and Student Voice Toolkit was distributed to student councils at secondary schools. It provided student councils with resources and ideas to help integrate diverse student voices into decisions at school and board levels. The tool kit included: a discussion guide, a poster, ambassador buttons and a USB key with more resources and Student Voice videos featuring MSAC students.

2012-13 Minister's Student Advisory Council

The 2012-13 council met with the Minister of Education twice to share their perspectives and ideas about education in Ontario. Below is a visual snapshot of just some of their ideas. Their I am... poem describes their vision for education.

The 2011-12 Minister's Student Advisory Council created a video called Lending a Hand to share their ideas on how to make school more engaging.

They also wrote Dream to describe their vision for education. Furthermore, the council also established sub-committees on Curriculum and Student Government, Classroom Culture and School Culture, so that they could continue their discussions virtually.

The 2010-11 Minister's Advisory Council recommended changing the Community Involvement Hour Policy. As a result of this recommendation and supporting ideas from students attending regional forums, the Ministry amended the policy. Now students can start accruing their volunteer hours as soon as they have completed Grade 8. This means that they can count their summer volunteer work towards the 40 community involvement hours they need to graduate from high school – even before they start Grade 9.

This council also identified 3 priorities for strengthening student engagement:

Build a strong extra-curricular program that builds a sense of belonging, self-confidence and enjoyment of school, particularly for those students at risk.

Encourage and support teachers to build strong relationships with students.

Foster a teaching approach that includes designing learning tasks that are focused on students' interests.

The inaugural meeting of the 2009-10 Minister's Student Advisory Council was held on May 12, 2009. Sixty students from across the province had their first opportunity to provide advice to the Minister of Education on a variety of topics regarding the publicly funded education system.

The very first MSAC recommended increasing student engagement in school and hearing all student voices so that:

The school culture becomes one where students feel that they belong.

The classroom culture becomes one where the individual needs of all students are met.

Improvements are made to the curriculum (e.g. Civics, Career Studies) to encourage greater student engagement in education and learning.

School guidelines and policies become more student driven/centred and representative of students' educational needs.

Read the results from the May 2009 MSAC meeting (PDF, 145 KB). These were reviewed and approved at their August 2009 meeting and formed the foundation for developing the Student Voice Indicators that are now used to gauge student engagement at schools.

In August 2009, the council had its second meeting. Members participated in discussions, team-building and leadership activities at the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre in Longford Mills.

Building on their work from the May meeting, they identified a list of the top nine ideas (the 9 Student Voice Indicators, PDF) that over 1,500 students in Ontario suggested would strengthen their engagement in learning and ensure all voices were heard.

Check out the video to see and hear what a few students had to say about their experience on the council.